King’s #1 Family Restaurant Has Fed the Community for Decades. This Thanksgiving, They Collaborated with Newark Working Kitchens

“Delivering the food, you get a chance to meet people from all walks of life, people you'd never imagine are suffering.”

Tina Darweesh, co-owner

Ali Darweesh opened King’s #1 Family Restaurant in 1990 with 20 seats and a vision of serving Halal soul food to Newarkers. Just a few years later, in 1996, he moved the business to 327 Lyons Avenue, in Newark’s South Ward. Seating more than 150, that’s where the restaurant has been ever since.

It’s owner Ali’s “down home Southern cooking” that has made the restaurant such a staple in the neighborhood, explains his wife Tina. Feeding everyone from city mayors to local families to the needy, it all comes back to the fact that “good, tasty food brings people together,” she says.

For Thanksgiving, Ali can usually be found whipping up 1,200 pounds of his famous potato salad, plus fried fish, four types of turkey, fried and baked chicken, stuffing, yams, cabbage, collard green, beans, peas and much more. This year, the Darweeshes collaborated with Newark Working Kitchens and were able to serve their community a festive meal, “freshly prepared with love” this holiday season. Cooking for community members in need, Tina says, has kept some of their staff employed, bills paid and, most importantly, kept their doors open. Though things are still difficult, she says, “without you guys, we wouldn’t have been able to survive.”

Customers are also happy the restaurant isn’t one of the many businesses in the area that have had to shutter. They still have King’s to turn to for a comforting meal of macaroni and cheese, baked chicken, pancakes and waffles and more. Recipients of NWK meals, too, are happy Ali is still cooking.

Feeding the community, especially the hungry, is what the couple, who've been happily married for 26 years, have always done since meeting right on Lyons Avenue all those years ago (she had a clothing store, he the restaurant). “We're always trying to help.”

In fact, when he is delivering the meals, he says, people recognize his truck; they can't wait to chat with him about how much they love his turkey chops, fried fish or rice. “Delivering the food, you get a chance to meet people from all walks of life, people you'd never imagine are suffering,” adds Tina.

NWK Keeps Spirits Up at Pita Square

“We’re all trying to help each other. I’ve said it a million times: Without NWK, I would be totally shut down.”

Mike Eldib, owner

In mid-March, Mike Eldib couldn’t have imagined the pandemic — and the emptier streets of downtown Newark — would last so long. “I thought it was going to be two weeks, a month,” says Eldib.

The Paterson resident and restaurant industry veteran had always wanted to open his own eatery. Halsey Street, with its bustling mix of office workers and students, seemed like the perfect opportunity. He opened the doors to Pita Square in June 2019.

From the lunchtime rush to students enjoying late-night study fuel, he loved getting to know his customers. But just nine months later, by the end of April, he had to lay off all his employees, undoing the progress the new business had made. The number of orders coming in was “not enough even to pay the electricity bill,” let alone rent and all the other bills — none of which, he points out, have abated during the pandemic.

But Eldib is embracing his new customers, the recipients of the meals he has been making for Newark Working Kitchens. People have even called the restaurant to say how much they love the food, Eldib says proudly. “We get them the best quality,” making meals fresh every morning and making sure to rotate what he and his staff — he was able to hire back a handful of employees — were cooking. This way, people wouldn’t be getting the same foods every day, something Eldib says is “helpful to keep spirits up.”

And not just the spirits of those receiving the hundreds of meals Pita Square makes for NWK a day. Cooking for Newarkers in need, Eldib says, is a win for everyone. “We’re all trying to help each other. I’ve said it a million times: Without NWK, I would be totally shut down.” It’s a sentiment he’s heard from other restaurants in the community, too. Without the program, he estimates, at least 10 to 15 local restaurants would have already closed. “Not just for Pita Square, but for everybody, thank you guys!”

Thanks to NWK, McGovern’s Doors are Staying Open

“This is keeping the lights on, honestly. If we weren’t doing this, in terms of our bottom line, we’d be completely boarded up.”

Sean McGovern, third-generation co-owner

A Newark establishment since 1936, McGovern's Irish pub is a community hangout for NJIT and Rutgers students, police officers, firefighters, lawyers and doctors, according to owner Mike Nagle. 

While Newark has seen its share of struggles since the bar and restaurant opened its doors back in 1936, the coronavirus pandemic is one of the worst. Newark has led New Jersey in COVID-19 spread, and is likely to be one of the communities hit hardest economically, too. Small businesses, like McGovern’s and other independent restaurants, are especially vulnerable to permanent closure. “We just did a major 18-month renovation on the tavern and reopened this past November 1st. This pandemic hit and we had to lay off 75% of our staff,” said Nagle.

But McGovern’s isn’t closing its doors. “Thanks to Audible, Newark Working Kitchens, and World Central Kitchen that day never came.” Since April, McGovern’s has instead been cooking for Newarkers in need and frontline workers with Newark Working Kitchens. NWK disrupts the food relief model while also sustaining local gems like McGovern’s, one of 24 restaurants NWK commissions to cook meals each week. "Now we have a different purpose. It's making us come to work every day," Nagle told ABC7 New York. "It's been the savior of, pretty much, our business." The income has also made it possible for them to provide take-out orders to loyal customers, too.

Known as a place where patrons “get the feeling of becoming fast friends with your neighbors on the stools next to you,” McGovern’s stands with us as we reach out to and serve our neighbors during a time of great need.